The Dexter Leader
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Shoppers are sweet on Ruhlig's Country Market
By Jackie Smith, Special Writer
PUBLISHED: July 24, 2008
Tradition continued July 19, as Ruhlig's Country Market in Dexter opened for the first time this season to an assembly of anxious customers.
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Martin and Shirley Ruhlig run the market from a former storage building on their family farm.
The opening-day selection included small and large cabbage, cucumbers, rhubarb, zucchini, tomatoes, small potatoes, Michigan cherries, and what Shirley calls the most popular product, sweet corn.
"Everybody wants Ruhlig sweet corn," she said. "We've been known for our sweet corn all our lives."
Martin said his family has been in the wholesale produce business since the late 1970s, and the farm itself dates to 1923.
Though much of what they sell is homegrown, but Shirley said Martin travels across the state to areas such as Grand Haven acquiring more to offer.
"We have excellent peaches when they come," she said. "As we get more stuff, more people will start to come in."
They also market their crops to other venues, Shirley said.
"We raise lots of cabbage, put it in cribs and it goes to Detroit," she said.
Having a history of selling their produce, Martin recalled previously offering strawberries and asparagus, but with "the different tastes of the public" and stores in business all year round, they have since moved on.
Nothing is particularly new this season, yet the Ruhligs say they expect to do well, and for business to be only slightly hurt with the impending construction
The Ruhligs' daughter Nancy has helped with the market from "the get-go," Martin said, among other family members who also pitch in.
This family affair begins at 5 a.m. every morning, Shirley said, as they begin to pick the day's sales.
Those early-bird habits however, did not stop Martin and his grandson from going out to pick more corn before noon that first day.
nearby on Island Lake Road.
Like many, longtime customer Joe Ciarovino purchased corn on opening day, and said he became acquainted with Martin and Shirley through his father, who was also involved with wholesale.
"I was coming here before it was a market ... as long as I can remember," he said. "It's been a long time. I still come because they have the best stuff."
Shirley said it is the relationships with the people such as Ciarovino and her family that makes their market unique.
"I know everybody that comes through that door ... it's like family here," she said.
"We get to know a lot of customers. I miss them when it comes to the end of the year."
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